Group challenges Green Bay diocese's tax-exempt status

Green Bay - A Madison-based group that advocates the separation of church and state is taking on the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is challenging the diocese's tax-exempt status after Bishop David Ricken urged parishioners to vote against candidates who support abortion or gay marriage.

An attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation has written to the Internal Revenue Service, saying Ricken's letter was an attempt to influence the outcome of the vote.

The diocese issued a statement saying the bishop "wrote his letter out of his love and concern for the people."

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Catholic priests, especially bishops, are using their authority to intimidate and influence voters!
This happens worldwide and it's time for the Catholic Church to at least pay property and other taxes!!

...Ratzi the nazi, you know, the anti-woman, anti-gay Pope. The Pope, that used to be the head of the Inquisition. Yes, that Inquisition. The Pope that shuffled pedophile priests from diocese to diocese to keep them NOT from abusing kids, BUT FROM GETTING CAUGHT.

2. No church should be tax exempt........

3. There are a lot of churches that should face this in court.

Heard that my local assembly candidate had fliers handed out in his church for his opponent several times - even at Sunday school. He's not going to take his own church to court over this, but it needs to be done.

When it's combined with electioneering and voter suppression right outside the polling booth, that's democracy at the nadir for some -- or non-profit tax write-off's being used to leverage the effectiveness of every dollar spent, in the view of others:

On Tuesday, Tea Party group True the Vote will dispatch poll watchers throughout the country to challenge voters’ rights as they cast their ballots. True the Vote often insists it is a nonpartisan organization simply concerned with election integrity. It has even applied for non-profit status, which would exempt them from taxes. But a new email to True the Vote volunteers in Illinois shows that the organization is recruiting poll watchers specifically for one candidate — Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL).
The email was sent by John Curry, the 32nd Ward Republican committeeman in Chicago who apparently moonlights as a True the Vote coordinator. He encourages volunteers to contact another coordinator named Sharon Keller:

…I have identified an important area for you to poll watch in this election. It is in the general area of Northwest suburban Chicago, including Schaumburg and Elk Grove Village. The area is of concern because of the close campaign between Joe Walsh and Tammy Duckworth for Congress, in which millions of dollars are being spent and many out of area workers are coming in to influence the election. Will you work as a poll watcher in this area? If you agree to do so, please contact Sharon Keller, who is coordinating pollwatching in this area. Her email is estateattorney@earthlink.net and her cell phone is 310-871-3611. Please tell her you were referred by John Curry. She will be running a special poll watcher training on Sunday, so it would be great if you can attend.

This Sharon Keller appears to be the same person who is in charge of partisan poll watchers for the Joe Walsh campaign, according to a Tea Party website....

....Illinois categorizes poll watchers as either partisan or nonpartisan. Presumably, True the Vote poll watchers will be posing as nonpartisan so as to not endanger their pending non-profit status. Yet this email to volunteers suggests they are recruiting partisan poll watchers for the Walsh campaign — in blatant defiance of their claim of nonpartisanship.

Edit add:

But whether it's indirectly state-sanctioned 'authority being used to intimidate and influence' voters in the form of in-your-face voter suppression efforts at the polls, or it's a homily from the pulpit or flyers being handed out after church, those are all nickle and dime, small time -- but highly public -- examples of dark money spending.

I suspect the worst damage is done when only a few accountants and those writing the checks are the only people who could ever connect the dots.

That was fiction, but now write-off's for dirty tricks have become real. Whether it's political speech or 'social welfare' it amounts to the same thing. Giving the top tenth of the one percent a freer hand to lead us all around by the nose.